PHONE (312) 603-6444

SHERIFFS OFFICE OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS

RICHARD J. DALEY CENTER
50 W. WASHINGTON- ROOM 704
CHICAGO, IL 60602
THOMAS J. DART
SHERIFF

July 10, 2017

Velisha L. Haddox
Bureau Chief
Cook County Bureau of Human Resources
118 N. Clark St., Room 840
Chicago, IL 60602
Velisha.Haddox@cookcountyil.gov

LaShon DeFell
Deputy Bureau Chief, Director of Labor Relations
Cook County Bureau of Human Resources
118 N. Clark St., Room 840
Chicago, IL 60602
LaShon.DeFell@cookcountyil.gov

Via Electronic and U.S. Mail

Re: Teamster Negotiations

Dear Velisha and LaShon;

We wanted to follow up with you regarding the Teamsters negotiations. As we discussed prior
to the holiday, we are disappointed with the end result. The Sheriffs Office has from day one
made it clear that this round of negotiations should not be business as usual, that the old method
of splitting up County issues (economic) from Sheriff issues (local) must end given our drastic
and mutual need to make an impact on absenteeism and overtime. Specifically, given that in
2016, the amount of FMLA time taken by officers at the Cook County Jail doubled since 2012,
the amount of time lost to IOD claims doubled in one year and the resulting overtime pay to
officers covering those lost hours increased from $18.7 million in 2015 to $24 million in 2016,
we discussed the need for some significant changes to the contract.
When we first discussed our proposals you insisted that the old way of negotiating be
maintained. However, you appeared to change your position and understood that splitting
economics from local issues benefits no one but the Union. We were encouraged that you not
only tendered several key proposals to the Teamsters but also repeatedly indicated that the
reduction of earned benefit time by two sick days and a holiday, the calculation of overtime pay
based on hours actually worked, the exhaustion of sick and benefit time through FMLA use and
the repeal of the County negotiated 30 day IOD rule are essential pieces to reduce absenteeism.

Unfortunately, despite the CCSOs push for and reliance on these key items, you did not follow
through with them. Moreover, you did this without notifying us of your intentions and entered
into an agreement on economics without inviting us to the table. When we raised this on our
follow up phone call, you said simply that you had obtained home visits for us and the
requirement to call in three hours in advance of a shift. As we stressed to you throughout these
negotiations, while home visits are certainly a tool to investigate possible misuse of sick time,
the visits will not solve our systemic absenteeism or overtime issues. Nor will three hour call-in
times. You said the County had a strategy to set the economics for the coming years and that the
Teamsters were unwilling to negotiate anything regarding overtime or the loss of benefit time.
So you abandoned them. You failed to disclose why you did not seek to modify the 30 day IOD
language though you repeatedly indicated the need to repeal it during negotiations. You did say
that your stated effort to modify that language was simply part of your strategy and abandoned
on purpose.

Our problems, as things stand now, will remain challenging and will likely be exacerbated by the
potential layoffs proposed last week. As we have said, the only meaningful ways to solve
absenteeism are to take away the amount of time people can take off and to fix how overtime pay
is calculated. Since these pieces did not make it into the agreement, the Sheriffs Office will
continue to struggle to cut overtime in a meaningful way.

We will continue to work internally and with the Teamsters to implement creative solutions to
address the absenteeism and overtime problems. We hope the County will do the same and will,
despite this lost opportunity, advance the key proposals referenced above. In the meantime, the
Sheriffs Office expects that your negotiated increases to the Sheriffs budget will be covered by
the County without some unrealistic expectation that our overtime will decrease as substantially
as these changes would have allowed. We look forward to developing a collaborative
relationship with you to reach real solutions to address the economic impact on operations.
Although some progress was made we hope to go beyond that in our next negotiations.

Sincerely,

Nicholas S. Scouffas
General Counsel
Cook County Sheriffs Office